The invention relates to a vegetable stick cutting machine. More particularly, the invention relates to a machine which creates numerous horizontal cuts and consecutively creates numerous vertical cuts in a vegetable to create vegetable sticks therefrom.
Vegetables, by virtue of coming from nature, are not uniform in size or shape. However, many modern food production, food service, and food handling processes and settings require the use of uniform ingredients. In addition, packaging efficiency for food products is enhanced by making food products more uniform, so that empty space within the packaging is eliminate or reduced.
Accordingly, over the better part of the last century, many have attempted to develop machines for processing food, so as to better adapt ingredients for the demands of our modern, automated society. Generally the systems that are in use attempt to create uniform vegetable sticks by forced extrusion. Such systems jam frequently and have a tendency to create significant spoilage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,954 to Wygal et al. discloses a food slicer which seeks to create vegetable cubes by moving the vegetables through several cutting stations with a pair of conveyer belts. Wygal requires numerous moving parts and considerable space for operation, and thus is unsuitable for most installations.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,662 to Brunnier discloses an apparatus for trimming vegetables. U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,801 to Switek, Jr. discloses an apparatus for slicing broccoli into spears.
In general, these machines are frought with problems. They tend to have considerable complexity, and thus have frequent problems, and are expensive to maintain. Often these problems themselves lead to lost production time and wasted food.
Accordingly, while these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.
It is an object of the invention to produce a vegetable cutting machine that is capable of producing vegetable sticks of substantially uniform cross-sectional size. Accordingly, the present invention moves the vegetable axially through both sets of parallel horizontal cutting blades and sets of parallel vertical cutting blades.
It is another object of the invention to provide a vegetable cutting machine that is simple in design so that it is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to maintain. Accordingly, the cutting machine is configured with far less moving parts than other cutting machines in the prior art, so as to minimize manufacturing expense and ensure continued reliability.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a vegetable cutting machine which is compact, so that it requires minimal operating space. Accordingly, the simplistic design allows the cutting machine of the present invention to be made so that it occupies very little space.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a vegetable cutting machine which is easy to operate, and may be safely operated. Accordingly, the configuration of the cutting blades and proximity of the feed minimizes operator contact with the cutting blades and ensures safe operation. Further, the high reliability of the machine ensures that the operator will have little need to access the mechanical components of the machine.
The invention is a cutting machine, for cutting vegetables into vegetable sticks, comprising a horizontal table having a feed end and an exit end. A belt extends vertically atop the table, around rollers which extend perpendicularly from the table. A plurality of cleats extend from the belt which have cleat fingers which extend horizontally outward from the belt. The cleats propel vegetables from the feed end toward the exit end. A horizontal blade assembly is disposed in the path of the cleats, and includes a plurality of horizontal blades which are vertically spaced to extend between the cleat fingers so that the blades do not interfere with the cleat fingers as they propel the vegetables. A vertical blade assembly is located farther toward the exit end than the vertical blade assembly, and includes a plurality of horizontal blades which cut the vegetables into sticks.
To the accomplishment of the above and related objects the invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Attention is called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only. Variations are contemplated as being part of the invention, limited only by the scope of the claims.